Unspoken
by IncredibleIrma
Summary: Problems with Nether portals led Ridgedog and Bebop to the Jaffa Factory. Ridgedog decided to take a closer look into the building that wakes so many memories. Implied Ridgephos. Set around episode 100 of the Jaffa Quest.


I started writing this back in May, so bear with me, the Jaffa Factory is still in one piece (not for long though). Just a bunch of my headcanons explaining why Ridge doesn't seem to be a demigod anymore and how on earth Xephos manages to be in the three places at the same time. Jaffa Quest made me sad. Very sad. And for once in a lifetime I've actually had the title from the very beginning.

Lots of love for my wonderful beta, Arianka.

* * *

"Oh shit, Ridge, this isn't the right anchor either!"

"Too late, Bebop, I'm already through after you..." Man's voice subsided a little when his body had been teleported between dimensions. Their unsuccessful attempts to get out of Nether in the right place were happening too often now.

"Check the coordinates," said Ridge, when he felt the familiar scent of healthy, living ground, which meant that his journey through the portal was coming to an end. Purple sparks danced on the grass when he stepped out of obsidian frame and immediately bumped into Bebop, who froze in place right in front of the portal.

"What?" Ridge exclaimed, scrambling from the ground.

"That's the Jaffa Factory, isn't it?" Bebop asked, his mouth gaped wide open as he looked at the construction looming over them.

Ridgedog raised his head, clearly surprised, and nodded. "Well, what's left of it, it seems."

The younger man peered cautiously around. "Should I kneel or something?" he joked, looking at the serious expression on Ridge's face.

Said man just shrugged, smirking. "I haven't seen it since... Well, quite a long time."

Suddenly this made him nervous, just the thought of the time that had passed.

The marble tower was in a rather decaying state, with giant holes in the walls, missing lamps and doors. Nature reclaimed its territory, overgrowing the building with veins and trees. The cafes in front of the facility were in even worse state - partially buried in the ground, as if the land itself wanted to erase the memories of empire that once had been here. Ridge headed towards the main building, stepping over the bushes of wild raspberries.

"I-I think I'll stay here," Bebop stuttered, looking at Ridgedog's actions. "Go and have a look, if you want, I'll stay here and... cook some food."

Ridge smiled at him, looking over his shoulder. "You're not scared, are you?"

Younger man puffed annoyingly, "Don't be silly. I would get lost inside it anyway. It... It just looks a little more sinister than I imagined."

Ridge shook his head and left him in front of the portal. When he came closer to the part of the wall that he expected to be the main entrance, he realized that the building wasn't just overgrown, the place had been infected with magic as well. The flux was buzzing lightly in the air, he could feel its taste on his tongue. Ridgedog cautiously got around the magic barrier that blocked the entrance, using smaller hole in the wall to get inside instead. The interior was in even worse state - the stone floor was gone, now buried deep under the dirt, grass and flowers. Even a few trees had managed to fit under the roof of the first floor, casting more shades. Ridgedog struggled through the grass, trying to avoid the ember moss, but its little flames burned his ankles anyway. All the nature that broke into the building wasn't making him feel any better - Ridge felt like everything was extremely out of place, just a familiar frame full of misplaced bits. The wall of machines was gone as well, Xephos' insufficient, but sophisticated contraption, and his heart dropped even more. The spaceman really loved this forsaken machine and had put a lot of work in it. Now its place was taken by the witch's altar. Ridgedog drown his sword, but the creature was nowhere to be seen; after a second he just shrugged in disgust and started looking for the way to upper floors. He knew that there had never been a staircase, back then the crew was using flying rings to get to the higher levels. Nevertheless, he managed to locate an emergency ladder and started climbing. On the third floor, which used to serve as a bakery, only one oven seemed to stay in its place. The room itself had clearly been changed into some sorts of library. Not wasting any more time, Ridgedog continued climbing, using a springy lily pad to reach the next ladder.

Freezer level was no longer a freezer, the ice must have melted long time ago; there was no technical equipment to keep it cold. Ridge stopped for a minute, giving himself a short break after climbing almost to the top of the building. The rungs of the ladders were rusty and battered, and the stores were rather high, so he took a minute to clean his hands and have a drink of water. Through the hole in the wall, probably after some missing lamp, he could see a small fire burning in the middle of the cafes, all the way down, where Bebop was probably actually preparing some food. Ridgedog chuckled, wondering why Jaffa Factory had become some kind of symbol for all of them, even for those who hadn't been directly involved in its creation. When he came to think of it, Ridge wasn't even sure what was _his_ role back then. Things that had happened in-between blurred his memories, leaving him confused, which wasn't his usual state of mind.

With clouded thoughts Ridge located the ladder to the next floor, trying to figure out how many bloody levels there were left; _If only I could fly, that would've made things so much easier..._ He didn't stop at the packaging and storing floor, which was now empty, if you didn't count the cobwebs and few plants, and headed straight up to the penthouse.

The first thing Ridge noticed when he surfaced on the last floor was a strange figure standing in the far end of the room. Ridge drew his sword, stepping closer, but when he passed the jacuzzi (now full of filthy, cold water) he realized that the figure was just an armour stand, carved from the dark wood. Nevertheless, something told him to turn around, with sword still in his hand.

"Hello, Xephos".

The spaceman was standing quietly in the shadow, but hearing that Ridge called his name, he stepped out into the light and nodded a greeting, "What are you doing here, Ridge?"

The older man put off his weapon and faced him. "Sightseeing," he answered calmly, the trace of humour in his voice.

Xephos chuckled, but something told Ridge to observe his expression. The spaceman looked tired and sad, with half-hearted smile on his face.

"So you did find it, then?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, Sjin got the coordinates from somewhere."

"And the dwarf and Lalna?"

"Back at the Baked Bean. We couldn't stay here for a night. This place is a mess." Xephos sighed, looking around.

Suddenly a thought struck Ridge. "You know what happened, don't you?" Ridge exclaimed, standing closer and gesturing around. "You know why _all_ of this happened?"

Xephos had an inscrutable look at his face. "The flux node at Lalna's castle broke and sucked..."

"Oh, I know _this_ story. I meant: what happened to us?"

Xephos looked at him, visibly startled.

"Don't look so shocked. I'm not that oblivious."

The spaceman turned around, looking over the edge of the building down at the facility. "It works on you the same way it worked for me," he said at last.

"You mean?"

"I could remember _everything_ when I was near you."

Ridge involuntarily smiled, but Xephos continued talking. "Every single world I've seen, every painful death, every life that lasted too long or too short... In a blink of your eye."

The spaceman turned again to face Ridge, his glowing eyes more visible in the deepening darkness, but he said nothing.

"Well then, the real question is, why I am the one who's restrained now? Why am I amongst the mortals, Xeph?"

The smile that flashed on spaceman's face didn't bring any warm, quite contrary - Ridge had to stop himself from taking a step back at the sight of it.

"Oh, so you don't remember _everything_?"

"What have you done?" Ridge's voice became stern.

"Unexpected consequences. Constants and variables. Error during the process. But in the greater scheme of things, it's not that bad to be a mortal, isn't it?"

At this moment Ridge was absolutely sure that something was wrong. This place, an empty shell of familiar shape, rotten on the inside, diseased with magic, brought him memories he wish he didn't recall. It brought him to Xephos, this Xephos standing in front of him... But it was just a phantom as well. It wasn't Xephos that had been a hero once; this wasn't Xephos who had conquered the Moon; this wasn't even Xephos who spent sunny days on Sjin's farm... Ridge could feel it in his eyes, in their turquise, but not familiar glow, in the tembre of his voice, in his cold words. _Was it even Xephos at all?_

"Yoglabs" whispered Ridge, out of nowhere, as if the wind murmured that word to his ear. The world around him burst with memories, images displayed in front of his eyes, burning his eyelids with vivid colours and flashing lights.

_The leaking pipe at the entrance, the fish tank in a lobby, the coffee machine, archives, medbay, down and down again... Many floors below the ground, below the robots depot, even below the Lalnable's glass cage, there was his body - strapped to the metal table. But the physical restrain was there only for comfort; making it easier to forget about the real shackles that were crawling under the demigod's skin, sucking up his powers to the nearby machines. And Xephos had been there, too; his forehead on the glass wall, eyes closed and fists clenched. Maybe Ridge could see tears streaming down his face, or maybe it was just a vision projected by his tormented mind..._

Ridge fell on his knees, head in his hands.

"What have you done?" he muttered again, trying to get control over his voice.

Xephos didn't answer, just stood in front of him, reached out and put his hand on Ridge's shoulder in a typically reassuring gesture. However, the kneeling man scowled as if he was in pain, his mind trying to compromise memories, timelines, whole _lives_ into one present.

"I forgot it can be quite overwhelming, sorry about that," said Xephos, withdrawing his hand, leaving him alone on the floor and looking into to sky through the hole made by collapsed roof. Ridge scrambled on his legs, still feeling the electric swirl coursing through his veins from the point where Xephos had touched his arm.

"I can host the Games now, too" the spaceman said, seemingly to no one in particular.

Ridgedog managed to drew his sword, some kind of rage started to tumble through his loins, fueling his actions. "Didn't I give you enough?" He asked through his gritted teeth.

Xephos noticed his movement in the corner of his eye, turned around and smirked, "It's nothing personal, as much as you'd like to think. And please, don't tell me that mortal body lowered your intelligence, put that sword down; you know that _it doesn't work_. I tested so much more on you, you should be wiser than that."

Ridge stopped, panting, still feeling unstable, and after a few seconds put the sword into the scabbard. "There's no point in being upset, Ridge. I haven't done anything that _you_ wouldn't do."

"You don't understand..."

"_You don't understand, you cannot imagine,_" Xephos muttered mockingly. "NOW. I. CAN. And you know what? This whole god-thing, it's such a clever idea. We were so oblivious. Whatever happened, whatever catastrophe ended our world, we were clueless. The world was ending and there was always you - the Rock, the Ripper. We kept respawning, kept dying, kept asking you for help and guidance. Now - I don't have to. With cloning facility and your powers, I don't have to ask anymore."

Ridge couldn't believe his ears. Hearing Xephos, _his Xephos_, saying such insane things was causing him physical pain, adding to the headache throbbing in his head. Ridge tried to put his thoughts together, find that one thing that would explain spaceman's behaviour, but he already knew it was a lost battle. Realization of what had happened in Yoglabs dawned on him, and the possible consequences... Everything was coming back to him now, the terrifying knowledge of all the little things that were usually swept under the carpet of universe, the aching, turning points of matter and time, always on the move, always changing... The feel of his powers, like electricity and ice under his fingers, the wind moving through him as he effortlessly flew above the world, the addictive sense of the omnipotence charged by every death of the mortals running for their lives during the Games... It was all so close to him again, and yet not _in_ him.

He looked up at the spaceman, who couldn't help inspecting Ridge's features, as if knowing what was going through his mind. The moonlight brought up spaceman's cheekbones, his eyes glowing slightly in the bloom of the room. There was time when this light had been a reassuring sign that Ridge craved for, but now is seemed just sinister and out of place.

"I haven't told you..." Ridgedog panted, again falling onto his knees, as if the proximity of Xephos' figure started to drain energy out of him.

"A lot of things, have you?" the spaceman interrupted him, moving one step closer, now just within the reach of the older man on the floor.

Ridge gritted his teeth, "You cannot take the power and give nothing back."

Xephos' face turned dark, his eyebrows crooked in anger and he hissed more than said, "Now you're talkative?" The spaceman bent over, looking Ridge right at the face. "Do you think you're the one entitled to talk to me about sacrifice?! What do _you_ know about it? How many times have you died slew by your friends?! How many times have you had a knife in your hand pressed to your mates' throat, knowing that you need to push, otherwise you will be next? How many times have you experienced the pain of respawning , again and again, pushed through the void into the stinging reality just to witness nothing but chaos and death?! Have you ever been forced to say goodbye to your best friend, possibly forever, just to lie to him after bringing him back?!"

Ridge just looked at him darkly, but said aloud, "You wouldn't belie..."

"Stop it." Xephos clasped Ridgedog's arms in his hands, his fingers digging painfully into his skin, the points of contact bursting with nauseous pain, swirling through his flesh deeper and deeper with every second.

"Do you think it was easy for me, watching you die?!" Ridge shouted, surprised with how broken his voice sounded in an empty building.

Xephos stooped to him and whispered, "Sentiment is not an advantage, isn't that what you told me once?" But with those words he let go of him and straightened up. "I understand it now. Not caring becomes so easy with time. And really, it _is_ the only logical option. It gives you freedom, it gives you joy. You can relish in power without all those tacky complications, you're the conductor of the others' lives, and yet they are still so oblivious... "

"No, Xephos. " Ridge found it difficult to say the spaceman's name aloud. He took a deep breath. "That's not how it works. Everything around you is changing, but the immortality... immortality is your curse. It took me so long to understand that." _It took me meeting you to understand that_, he thought. "The worlds are collapsing, people are dying, sometimes with your name, sometimes cursing you, but you cannot just move them around. What is meant to happen, is happening. You can pull strings, you can watch other world where the terms are different, but in the end, you can't do much more than observe. And you cannot _ever_ look away."

Xephos looked at him, startled. "Thank you for your input, Ridge, but it's too late for those fairytales now. I'm far beyond that, but maybe you haven't noticed yet. I am your god now. I'm everywhere. To be honest, I think I'm even better, with those clones I can personally control every important person without losing the big picture. They're adorable in their reliance. Now I understand what you meant, why you stuck with us - people are such a good source of entertainment."

Ridgedog felt as if something inside him broke. It was too late, Xephos went insane. Deprived from his powers, Ridge couldn't do anything to stop him. _Even if I told the others that they're surrounded by Xephos' clones, they wouldn't believe me. They don't even remember Yoglabs! Maybe Honeydew could help, but he was the first one to be cloned in the first place, Xephos probably has complete control over his memories._ The former demigod just bowed his head.

"Look at you. You're tired. Maybe that's your age showing up?" Xephos laughed. "You know what, go back to your little adventure and forget about this. Oh wait, if it really works the same way it worked on me, you _will_ forget about this, so either way, it's not your business anymore."

"What are you planning?" Ridge asked, standing up, trying not to show his helplessness to Xephos' satisfaction.

"Nothing festive, just settling ground for something bigger." He smoothed his hand on the collapsed wall beside him. "This place really is a mess, I need to take care of it. _Don't worry about it_, it is going to be fun."

Ridge couldn't bring himself to look at the smile that was plastered to the spaceman's face.

"I'll make it easier for you and leave now, actually. I almost forgot I have an appointment with a very talented man. Maybe you've met him? His name's Kirin Dave. _I think he's my favorite now..._" Xephos whispered playfully and vanished in the darkness.

As the spaceman's figure disappeared, Ridge let out a long sigh. His heart was drumming loudly, his headache hadn't subsided, and he knew that his only task now was to cling onto every word of this conversation and carve it in his mind, do everything to remember the most of it, before it inevitably slipped into the void. That was all he could do now. He was sure though, that there will be time when he will reclaim his powers and bring back the real Xephos, _his Xephos_, to life. It may take him another lifetime or two, but it will happen. Exactly as the unspoken rules said.


End file.
